Richard Gadd Doesn’t Want You to ‘Sleuth’ Real-Life ‘Baby Reindeer’ Characters
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Richard Gadd is just going to let the internet do its thing. In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, published Monday, the Baby Reindeer creator reiterated that he would not confirm or deny the real-life identities of the people portrayed in the Netflix show.
“I know for every single part, there’s been about five or six people who have been sort of named as each part, even all the way down to the pub manager,” Gadd said. “The internet’s always going to do its thing. I can’t really comment on that.”
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“There was a video the other day someone had sent me of someone claiming to be Teri,” he continued, referring to the trans love interest in the show played by Nava Mau. “I’d never met them before in my life. The internet just does this thing and I just have to let it do its thing. And that’s that.”
The newly published THR interview was conducted before Fiona Harvey — said to be the inspiration for the show’s character Martha (played by Jessica Gunning) — sat down for an interview with Piers Morgan in which she denied Gadd’s portrayal of her reported character being a stalker.
“I don’t agree with the sleuth thing. I’ve put out a statement publicly saying I want the show to be received as a piece of art,” Gadd said in his THR chat. “I’m called Donny Dunn. It exists in a sort of fictional realm, even though it’s based on truth, it exists in a fictional realm. Let’s enjoy the world that I’ve created.”
“If I wanted the real-life people to be found, I would’ve made it a documentary,” he added. “I’ve spoken publicly about how I don’t want people to do it and if I start playing a game of whack-a-mole, then I’m almost adding to it. I don’t think I’ll ever comment on it ever again.”
Gadd previously asked that people stop speculating about the people’s identities, sharing an Instagram story, writing, “Please don’t speculate on who any of the real-life people could be. That’s not the point of our show.”
He also told Variety that the series was “all emotionally 100 percent true” and “borrowed from instances that happened to me and real people that I met.”
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